(and BA.5) UK, infections increasing

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare

Uptick in Covid hospital admissions in England

33% on the week

Increases will continue for weeks (2 or 3)

Caused by omicron sub-variants, BA.4 and BA.5

Spreading more readily than BA.2

Office for National Statistics

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplep....opulationandcommunit

Early signs of a possible increase in COVID-19 infections in England and Northern Ireland



Omicron BA.4 and BA.5, in the ascendancy

Taken over from Omicron BA.2

Taken over from Omicron BA.1

Taken over from Delta

Taken over from Alpha

Taken over from Wuhan original strain

Omicron wave hospital patients



19% caught the virus in hospital,

https://twitter.com/AdeleGroye....r/status/15348173266

BA.4 and BA.5 variants emerged in South Africa

Both evade immunity from vaccination or infection

UK crossover point, (BA.4 and BA.5 over half of cases) Jubilee weekend (2nd to 4th June)

South Africa

https://www.nicd.ac.za/disease....s-a-z-index/disease-

BA.4 and BA.5 variants had already swept through South Africa, no major problems

Despite multiple reinfections,

Deaths in South Africa were only around a tenth of the peak during previous waves

Previous immunity has not protected against BA.4 and BA.5 infections

Reinfections will increase immunity

Severity of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfections as Compared with Primary Infections

https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2108120

December 2021

Qatar national cohort of 353,326

N = 1,304 reinfections

Reinfections were rare and were generally mild

(Risk of re-infection, x8 in omicron times compared to delta times)

Reinfections had 90% lower odds of resulting in hospitalization or death than primary infections.

US data

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-da....ta-tracker/#datatrac

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-da....ta-tracker/#variant-